Six academy players could make Manchester City's matchday squad against Sporting in the Champions League with Pep Guardiola's first-team options limited.
Ruben Dias is out for at least a month with a hamstring injury picked up in the FA Cup at Peterborough, Nathan Ake has not quite recovered from a blow in the same game and Zack Steffen is still missing with a back issue. Joao Cancelo will miss the match on Wednesday with sickness, while Kyle Walker is unavailable for selection as he serves a three-match ban.
Walker still trained to make up the numbers, as did Kevin De Bruyne even though the Belgian may not start given he is one yellow card away from a suspension in the competition. They were accompanied by a string of youngsters from the academy who could all feature in the squad on Wednesday.
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Liam Delap, James McAtee, Shea Charles, CJ Egan-Riley, Sam Edozie and Luke Mbete were all part of the 23-man group who trained ahead of the Champions League second leg, while summer signing Kayky was also included in the group. Guardiola namechecked winger Edozie’s ability in his pre-match press conference and also answered a question on centre-back Mbete.
City are 5-0 up from the first leg, and it would take a record defeat for Pep Guardiola as a manager for the Blues to exit the competition at this stage. The draw from the quarter-final and semi-final takes place later this month once all the last-16 ties have been completed.
Full training squad : Ederson, Carson, Walker, Egan-Riley, Charles, Stones, Mbete, Laporte, Zinchenko, Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan, McAtee, Bernardo, De Bruyne, Kayky, Delap, Jesus, Edozie, Sterling, Mahrez, Foden, Grealish.
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